Into the Fire
by john.lzhc
Summary: It was a little after midnight when Jade Shale woke up and realised that someone was trying to kill her'. Darth Vader marched on the Jedi temple, one young girl escapes quick death, to the harsh life of the Empera's Hand...
1. Of Waking and Seeing

**Into the fire**

Don't own, blah blah blah.

Enjoy!

_Of Waking and Seeing_

It was a little after midnight when Jade Shale woke up and realised that someone was trying to kill her.

Though she was only seven, she didn't move, panic, or even show she had woken. Seven years of Jedi training had ingrained an unnatural calm into her persona. It had also taught her, in ways sometimes subtle, sometimes glaringly harsh, that if there was one thing in the galaxy you shouldn't trust, it was dreams.

And although the fractured images of her nightmare where terrifying in there own right, she was alone. Maybe what she had glimpsed through the shrouds of sleep was the future? That impossible facade of ever changing possibilities. The future is always in motion. So despite the screaming of her feelings to run, hide, escape, she stilled herself and listened.

At first there was only the gentle hum of the temple systems, singing hypnotically into her darkened room. Then, for a second, the garish clash of a lightsaber.

No one should be using weaponry out of the sparing arenas, and they where far below the tower where the apprentices slept. Weaponry _shouldn't_ be here. And yet here it was, completely expected by the one person to briefly foresee the catastrophic holocaust ahead.

For years now, Jade mused through a haze of rising terror, the Jedi had gone to the war. It seamed that the two positions had now bean reversed.

The war had come to the Jedi.

She moved swiftly, jumping all of a sudden from fearful stillness into a whirlwind of action. Opening the chest at the foot of her bed, she dressed hurriedly; not into the clothes of an apprentice, but a set of more casual clothes, baggy black cargo pants, and a loose red shirt, for she was quickly making plans, deducing as much information as she could from the little raw data she had, and for her to survive, she would need to avoid looking like a Jedi. The apprentice hesitated as she looked to the practise lightsabre resting on her bedside table. It was tempting, but…

If someone was attacking the Jedi temple, clearly they would be a well armed, experienced troop of fighters. Or possibly insane. But she could hear the fighting from her room, so they were clearly not mad, or if they where then they where _dangerously_ mad. She was only seven, and a training lightsabre would not protect her from trained solders. Her survival counted on getting out of the temple unseen, and then across the city unnoticed. The lightsabre would be a hindrance, nothing more. Pulling on boots, she left quickly.

In the corridor, she glanced quickly both ways, before running to the door opposite to her own, seeking out her close riend Miaka. She didn't bother to knock, only pushed into the room and pulled back the bed sheets roughly, shaking the little tweleck girl. Her friend awoke with a start and an explanation, cuing her to press her hand against Miaka's small mouth.

"Quiet a moment and listen to me. I can hear the sound of lightsabres, that means someone's fighting away from the sparing arias, and that means that someone is trying to attack the Jedi temple." She drew her hand away, assured she now had the full attention of the girl.

"Attacking? But who-"

"I don't know. No doubt something to do with the war. But if they have any sense they'll have cut our communication before they came, so probably no one knows. I'm going to go down the tower if I can and try to get help from the security station on Queens Boulevard. Now no one's come to get us so I need you to wake all the apprentices and get them up the tower as high as you can. Don't go down: there's too many to hide. O.K?" All she received was a silent nod. "Get dressed. Go quickly, go quietly."

Miaka jumped up quickly, then hesitated, and pulled Jade into a tight hug.

"Be safe, friend."

And then Jade was out of the door, running to her destiny.


	2. Desent

**Into the Fire**

Well, the last time I checked I'm not an aging American sell-out-to-globalisation film maker. From this we can deduce that it is unlikely I own StarWars. (No, I'm just a sarcastic fanfiction writer with a grudge about the new movies).

_Descent_

The dim glow thrown from the artificial endless day of the great city of Corusant was the only illumination within the curving corridors of the Jedi temple, and for this Jade Shale was grateful. She knew these corridors well, almost instinctively, but while she knew where she was going, whatever malignant person that came looking for her here would have trouble seeing her, she could hide easily.

She had been thinking hard about who in all the worlds could be attacking. The Republic was at war, and so because of that so where the Jedi, though the council vearmently denied it Jade was not stupid, she had learnt not to trust everything she was told. Sense dictated, then, that the aggressors where tied to the separatists, some of their army. But how did they get hear, into the very living hart of Corusant, without being detected, stopped. Something was very wrong, aside from the obvious attack, The sense of foreboding was ringing in her mind. Had they somehow been betrayed? A corrupt senator, maybe? A bribed security officer?

The word 'sith' wondered through her mind, chilling her. Surely not, surely that was just irrational panic. 'You know the truth' whispered the traitorous voice of reason in the back of her mind. Sometimes she resented how the force could push her like a chess piece in times of danger; but at least she was awake to survive.

She reached a point in the corridor and stopped. In the dark, the outside wall she turned to examine seemed indistinguishable from the smooth stone only a foot away, but Jade ran her hands over the polished surface, finding the narrow cracks that marked the emergency escape.  
Her fingers found shallow indents near the floor, and hesitated. Once she popped the hatch she would have exactly two and a half seconds...

She dug sharply into the pressure sensors, and a square of the wall sprung outwards. She scrabbled frantically, finding a hold on the edges quickly, throwing it out of the way, trying to ignore the loud clattering it made. She thrust her arm into the dark opening and slapped where she was sure there should be a shut off for the imminent alarm. She hesitated, and listened. The only sound was air cursing through her chest. She had done it.

The loud siren would cause panic, and probably bring help, but the alarm displays would show where the alarm had been instigated, drawing the attackers straight to the apprentices, had the internal security system bean comprimised. She would have to trust he older Jedi to set off the emergency alarm, and distract the attackers long enough for help to arrive.

It never occurred to her that it was the republic itself that had turned against the ancient, failing order.

She didn't allow herself even a second to catch her breath, but dived through the opening grabbing the discarded panel and pulling it back into place behind her. She backed swiftly through the tunnel, till her legs found nothing but empty space. She twisted herself onto a tall ladder, and contemplated briefly setting off the automatic decent. It would get her to the bottom in a fraction of the time, but it would have the same effect as leaving the alarm on. It would draw danger to the younglings. No, she would have to at least start climbing.

Swiftly she went, frantically throwing caution to the wind, all too conscious of the young lives that may depend on her speed. Despite her best efforts though, if took her a good ten minutes to be out of the apprentice areas. she was only seven, and climbing a ladder designed for someone at least twice her size was hard. By the time a dim markers by the entrance to the ladder changed from blue to orange, her hands where raw, and her muscles aching. Her eyes where sore from staring at too many rungs in the ladder.

When finally she reached a safe level, she slapped the automatic desent blindly, closing her tired eyes and clinging to the rungs as the started to move. She let her mind drift as she sped downwards, trying to catch a sense of her fellow apprentices high above her in the tower. She caught no hint of them, safe or otherwise. She was tiring quickly, and her concentration was paying the price.

Suddenly her feet hit the ground and she stumbled backwards, tripping as she sort her lost balance, grazing her cheek on the duracrete as she fell harshly to the floor. She gasped in pain, swiping a few droplets of blood from her broken skin. For a few moments she lay still, staring blankly up at an infinite black tunnel, fighting of darkness that tried to swim through her mind and vision. Her eye flickered shut.

A vague presence brushed past her mind, touching curiously, searching inside...

She slammed up what mental defences her young mind could manage, shooting upright as that horrible sensation sort to find where she was. She scrambled for the release to open the door to the room of the temple's main building. The word 'sith' pushed through her mind with a lot more force then before, meeting a lot less resistance.

Climbing out into the cutting wind of the night, she began to panic. If the attackers where Sith... What was she saying? It was Sith. She had known since before she even woke that it was Sith, she had just not wanted to believe it, not let herself believe it.

Long ago, the Jedi had supposedly destroyed the Sith, wiping them from the face of the galaxy in a surprisingly genocidal move.

Now it appeared they were back.

And it appeared they sort revenge.

Cleshayed, no? Well every 'Mara Jade becomes the Emperor's hand' fick I've read has her as some helpless little girl with no will to defend herself. I know that the Emperor played a big part in shaping her personality, but I find it unlikely he'd pick her for force talent alone, and then, even if he did, surely the Jedi would have picked up on a child with such latent talent. So anyway, that's my theory to back this up.

Now, if you're all feeling like good little fans, click that little button in the bottom left corner. Go on, you know you want to. attempts freaky Jedi mind control


End file.
